Poll: Two-thirds of Israeli Jews don't trust Kerry on security

Thirty-one percent of Israeli Jews and 32% of Arab Israelis do trust Kerry to take into account Israel’s security.

US Secretary of State John Kerry addresses the AIPAC annual policy confernce in Washington, March 3, 2014..
(photo credit:screenshot)

Sixty-six percent of Israeli Jews and 53% of Israeli Arabs do not trust US Secretary of State John Kerry to take the country’s security into account in the American negotiating framework agreement he intends to reveal next month.

This according to the monthly Peace Index poll sponsored by the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University, which was published on Tuesday.

Thirty-one percent of Israeli Jews and 32% of Arab Israelis do trust Kerry to take into account Israel’s security. Among Israelis who consider themselves left-wing, the number was 79%, but among right-wingers it was only 19%.

Sixty-one percent of Jews and 56% of Arabs believe that Kerry’s main motivation for reaching a framework agreement is a personal interest in making history as a statesman where others have failed. Only 22% of Jewis and 16% of Arabs believe he is motivated by honest concern for the future of the two parties. Eight percent of Jewish Israelis and 14% of Arab Israelis believe he is equally motivated by the chance to make history and concern for the parties.

When asked which side the Americans were pressuring more, 74% of Israeli Jews said Israel, 12% said both sides equally, and only 5% said the Palestinians.

Among Israeli Arabs, 29% believe the Americans are more strongly pressuring the Palestinians to accept the framework agreement, 26% believe both sides are being equally pressured, and 25% believe Israel is under more pressure.

Fifty percent of the Jewish public and 69% of the Arab public think Israel should show flexibility on the framework agreement in order to avoid a direct clash with the US. But 46% of the Jewish public and nine percent of the Arab public think Israel should not show such flexibility.

Similarly, 49% of Israeli Jews and 71% of Israeli Arabs would support a freeze on building in the settlements if Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had agreed to do so in order to allow the framework agreement to continue. But 47% of Israeli Jews and 21% of Israeli Arabs would not support a settlement freeze in order to facilitate Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Sixty-eight percent of Israeli Jews and 43% of Israeli Arabs say they will accept the framework, even if it goes against their political position, if it is approved by the government and in a referendum.

Twenty-three percent of Israeli Jews and 34% of Israeli Arabs say they would act to prevent a framework agreement’s implementation if it goes against their political position, even if it is approved by the government and in a referendum.

The survey was conducted last Monday and Tuesday. It included 603 respondents who constitute a representative sample of the adult population of Israel. The measurement error for a sample of this size is 4.1 percentage points.